The only movie reviews you need

Monday, November 21, 2016

Hollywood loves alien movies, be
it the apocalyptic mayhem of a full blown invasion from outer space or the idea
that aliens are harmless and virtually everything in between. From ‘War of the Worlds’ to ‘Invasion of the
Body Snatchers’ to ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ aliens have been
portrayed as brutal conquerors to sinister infiltrators
to benevolent beings who just needed our help to go home (not just ‘ET’ but
‘Starman’ and ‘Paul’).Just when you
think you’ve seen them all, along comes ‘Arrival,’ French-Canadian auteur Denis
Villeneuve’s fascinating and rather introspective look at how we might realistically
react and behave in a “First Contact” scenario.

Based on Ted Chiang’s Nebula
Award-winning novella “Story of Your Life,” ‘Arrival’ centers on linguistic
professor Dr. Louise Banks’ (Amy Adams) attempt to communicate with “Abbot” and
“Costello,” two Heptapod alien creatures whose highly advanced giant elliptical
spaceship hovered above the plains of Montana.Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she was
tasked by the US government to determine what the aliens want.The
simplicity of the question belies its very complexity in execution, as Louise
and Ian try to decipher the aliens’ highly complex and enigmatic written
language and come up with a way to effectively communicate with them.

If you’re expecting the typical
dumbed-down alien fare we’ve seen all too often from Hollywood, you will no
doubt be disappointed.Quiet and
poignant in tone, ‘Arrival’ is a hard sci-fi film that’s cerebral and deep,
delving not only into the scientific but also the metaphysical.Like 1997’s ‘Contact,’ ‘Arrival’ seeks to
answer some of our most pressing questions through the personal experience and
journey of its main protagonist as opposed to simply provide mindless
entertainment.Grade: A

Monday, November 7, 2016

For whatever reasons, World War
II movies on ground combat in the Pacific Theater lag well behind their ETO (European
Theater of Operations) counterparts in popularity and impact.There were a couple of early notable ones to be
sure, like ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’ and ‘Halls of
Montezuma,’ but it wasn’t until Clint Eastwood’s ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ in
2006 that managed to give audiences something good after such misfires as
‘Windtalkers’ and ‘The Thin Red Line.’However, that film told the story strictly from the Japanese perspective.

Mel Gibson’s latest directorial
feature, a remarkable and faithful (in more ways than one) biopic on the life
of Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, finally gave us a “grunt movie” set in
the island-hopping campaign of the Pacific worth gushing about.You may have seen the trailer of ‘Hacksaw
Ridge’ but are debating whether to see the movie or not because you suspect
Gibson may have gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
I don't blame you because that too has crossed my mind. But let me assure you that he is back in top form and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
represents his best directorial effort since ‘Apocalypto’ and perhaps even ‘Braveheart.’Imparting Doss with a certain small town country
boy charm, Andrew Garfield delivered his best performance yet as the medic
who was awarded a Medal of Honor for saving numerous lives during the pivotal
battle on Okinawa despite being labeled a coward because he refused to carry a weapon into battle.Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths were also great as Doss’s deeply
religious but dysfunctional parents, but my favorite character in the movie is
arguably Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn), whose most memorable contribution in
the movie isn’t training the raw recruits or even leading them into battle himself but
making us laugh our asses off.

‘Hacksaw Ridge’ doesn’t sugarcoat
the horrors of war or pull any punches in its depiction of war as a brutal and gory
hell-on-earth, but as a biopic it is a powerful and inspirational portrait of courage
under fire and selfless sacrifice as well as the convictions of one's
deeply held religious beliefs.Hallelujah, the “lesser”
theater has finally found its own ‘Saving Private Ryan.’Grade: A

The latest film from Phase 3 of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit “strange.”I have to admit, Doctor Strange is one of those characters from Marvel
who isn’t familiar to me because I’ve never read his comics in my youth other
than maybe a couple of cross-overs.Not
that I dislike him or anything; it’s just that there are so many superheroes
and characters in the Marvel and DC universes that I simply don’t have the time
to cover them all even if I had the allowance to buy every comic book of every
title.

In a way this is refreshing
because, as in the case of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ I don’t have to wait
impatiently for the familiar obligatory origin story to be told, in
this instance that of a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon played by Benedict
Cumberbatch who’s vain (not stupid) enough to attempt multi-tasking with a
tablet while driving his speeding sports car in the rain on a slippery mountain highway,
which proved to be a fatal mistake and his undoing as a surgeon.The “unfortunate” accident also proved to be
fateful and maybe even fortuitous, however, as it placed him on a path to enlightenment
and becoming part of a group of mystical warriors entasked with protecting our
world against magical and mystical
threats, much like The Avengers protect earth against physical threats as the
first among them known as the “Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton) succinctly put it
during his orientation.

While it is derivative and
borrowed liberally from oriental Buddhist traditions and mysticism as well as the
good-pupil-turned-bad soap operatic tragedy of ‘Star Wars’ and other stories,
‘Doctor Strange’ nonetheless managed to be yet another solid addition to the MCU that is
mind-blowing, entertaining and smart.The reality-bending special effects (which is best viewed in IMAX
3-D) are reminiscent of ‘Inception’ with its topsy-turvy skylines but are fun to watch.My favorite scene is probably the one at the end of the movie when Doc Strange insists on striking a bargain with “Dormammu,” a
malevolent god-like being from the Dark Dimension, which serves as a perfect example of never-say-die (no pun intended) persistence.